Aesthetic surgery · consultation first
Liposuction
Performed by a plastic surgeon certified by the Royal College, at North Shore Plastic Surgery down the hall. It removes fat from a defined place. It is not a weight-loss operation and it does not tighten skin — the consultation exists to work out which of those you are actually asking about.
- Surgery
- 1–3 h
- Off work
- 1–2 wk
- Final contour
- 3–6 mo
What the decision involves
Liposuction takes out fat sitting in a defined pocket that has not moved with diet or training. What it cannot do is tighten the skin over that pocket — take enough fat from under skin that has lost its recoil and the result is a looser contour, not a better one. So most of the consultation is about skin quality, fat distribution and what the area will look like afterwards. Sometimes it ends with a surgeon telling you that the operation you asked for is not the one that would help, and that is a legitimate outcome of an hour well spent.
Royal College certified
Your surgeon is FRCSC and operates at Lions Gate Hospital.
Examined before quoted
Areas, technique and volume are decided on your body, standing up, not from a photograph.
One team afterwards
Skin and scar care after the operation happen in the same building.
Surgical credentials above — Royal College certification, FRCSC, hospital appointments — are held by physicians of North Shore Plastic Surgery, an independent company that shares this address. They are not credentials of MMC Anti-Aging.
Usually a reasonable candidate
- A weight you can hold steady, and a shape that still bothers you at that weight
- Fat in a defined area that has not moved with diet or training
- Skin with reasonable recoil over that area
- In good general health and a non-smoker, or willing to stop well before surgery
- Able to wear a compression garment for weeks and to take one to two weeks away from work
We would ask you to wait
- Weight still moving in either direction — the result would move with it
- Looking for weight loss, or for a treatment of obesity; this is neither
- Significant loose skin, where an excision operation is the honest answer
- A bleeding disorder, or a heart or lung condition your physician has not cleared
- Someone else wants this more than you do
Before surgery
- Consultation, examination and standing photographs
- Bloodwork and medical clearance where indicated
- Stop smoking and certain medications — you will get a written list
- Buy the compression garment before the day
- Arrange someone to drive you home and stay the first night
The day
- 01AdmissionMarking while you are standing and awake, then a final confirmation of the plan with your surgeon.
- 02SurgeryOne to three hours, under general anaesthetic or sedation depending on the areas.
- 03RecoveryYou wake in recovery. Most people go home the same day.
Recovery
- Soreness like a hard training session, and leaking from the small access points for a day or two
- Compression garment more or less continuously for four to six weeks
- Walking from day one; no real exercise until you are cleared
- Swelling hides the result for months — the contour is a three to six month judgement
Risks worth understanding
before you decide
This is surgery, usually under general anaesthetic. These are not remote possibilities to be skimmed past; your surgeon will go through each one against your body rather than in the abstract.
- Bleeding, infection, and the risks that come with general anaesthesia
- Contour irregularity — dents, ridges or a wave in the skin that was not there before
- Asymmetry between two sides that were never identical to begin with
- Numbness over the treated area, usually temporary and occasionally not
- Fluid collection under the skin that needs draining
- Loose skin becoming more obvious once the fat beneath it is gone
- Blood clots in a leg or a lung — uncommon, and the reason you are walking on day one
- Burns or skin damage where an energy-assisted technique is used
- A revision operation, which is not rare in body contouring
- Small scars at the access points, which vary between people and cannot be predicted exactly
- Fat entering the bloodstream, or injury to a structure beneath the treated area — rare, serious, and discussed with you properly rather than listed and passed over
Questions we get
Can I book the surgery online?
No. You can book a consultation. There is no way to schedule an operation from this website — the date is set with the surgeon who will perform it, after an examination and a written quote.
Is it covered by MSP?
No. This is cosmetic and self-pay. If what you need turns out to be insured surgery, that is North Shore Plastic Surgery's own practice and you would go through the usual referral route with them.
Will the fat come back?
The cells removed are gone. The ones left behind still respond to weight gain, so the shape holds as long as your weight does.
Is this a treatment for weight?
No. It changes the shape of a defined area. If weight is the real question, say so at the consultation — that is a different conversation, and sometimes a different clinician.
How many areas can be done at once?
There is a limit, and it is about safety rather than budget. Your surgeon will tell you what can be done in one sitting and what should wait for another.
What if the surgeon says no?
Then you get the reason in plain words and, where there is one, a better option. A consultation that ends in "not this" is not a wasted appointment.
How long is the recovery?
One to two weeks away from work is the common plan. The first days feel like a hard training session and the small access points leak for a day or two. A compression garment is worn more or less continuously for four to six weeks. Walking starts on day one; real exercise waits until the surgeon clears it. Swelling hides the contour, so the result is a three to six month judgement.
Request a consultation
Request a consultationWho does this
The operation is performed by a surgeon of North Shore Plastic Surgery, an independent company that shares this address; their hospital appointments and certifications are theirs, not ours. The consultation, the preparation and the follow-up at the Lonsdale Avenue clinic in North Vancouver are with MMC’s own clinicians — see the team page.
Other treatments here
Everything listed here is offered at the Lonsdale Avenue address in North Vancouver. Names, durations and prices come from the clinic’s live schedule rather than from this page, so what you see is what is bookable today.
- Breast Augmentation ConsultationConsultation first
- Eyelid Surgery ConsultationConsultation first
- Postpartum Surgery ConsultationConsultation first
Other places people start
These are sorted by what is bothering you rather than by treatment name. Each page says what actually helps, what does not, and when the honest answer is that nothing here is needed.
- Loose Skin After Weight LossLosing the weight is the hard part and you have done it. What is left is usually a skin problem rather than a fat problem, and those have completely different answers.
- Fatigue & Low EnergyThis is the concern where we are least likely to sell you anything, and we would rather say that at the top of the page than at the end of a consultation.
- Dullness & Uneven ToneDullness and dehydration are a texture problem, not a shape problem. That distinction decides which half of the menu is even relevant.
- Volume Loss & HollowsVolume loss is the change people describe as looking tired or gaunt without being able to name a line. It is also the one where over-treatment is most visible from across a room.
- Forehead & Frown LinesForehead and frown lines are muscle before they are skin. The question that decides your result is not the dose — it is whether the line is still only there when you move.
- Hooded Upper LidsThe line where this stops being an injectable question and becomes a surgical one is unusually clear, and you are entitled to be told which side of it you are on.
- Jawline & Contour LossThe most common reason people book here, and the one where the honest answer changes most with age. In your forties a device usually does it. In your sixties it usually does not.
- Nasolabial FoldsNasolabial folds are usually a symptom. Filling the fold itself is the most common way to end up looking heavy in the lower face.
- Stubborn Body FatA pocket that stays the same size while the rest of you changes. Usually the flanks, the lower abdomen, or under the chin. The useful question is not which machine to use — it is whether what you are looking at is fat at all.
- Under-Eye Hollows & ShadowsThe most common request here, and the one where the answer is most often no. Under-eye shadow has at least four causes and filler helps exactly one of them.